is more always better with specialty grains?

I was reading an article on byo from the brewmaster of Rogue, and he said that basically the more specialty malts the better. is that true?

I always bump up the specialty malts to about 4 pounds, keeping the correct ratios though for the recipe. I hate seeing recipes with only a pound of specialty malt. I want flavorful beers. What are your thoughts on this?

specialty malts all depend on the brewers taste. take a pilsner, many brewers will say only put 2 row german pils malt in, yet there are many recipes with one or two specialty malts in it. i say brew it how you like it.

dgrabstein said:

I was reading an article on byo from the brewmaster of Rogue, and he said that basically the more specialty malts the better. is that true?

Click to expand...

John Maier said that? I didn't see that article.

No, generally that's not true. Some of the best recipes have a solid malt base with very little in the way of specialty grains. I think it depends on the recipe, though.

In an IPA, I think one specialty grain is enough often. But in an oatmeal stout, I like crystal, chocolate malt, oatmeal, roasted barley and/or pale chocolate malt. That's 4-5 specialty malts.

"More" is not always better, though. It's a balance- you want complexity but not muddiness in the malt bill.

I also agree that that as a basic rule is patently false. I recently brewed a stout with 3 lbs of specialty malt, and it was way too much for the recipe. I haven't been able to get through that batch yet because I have since produced much better and more well balanced beers, and that was about 4 months ago

If you like 4 pounds of specialty malts, then more power to you. I guess Rogue probably uses plenty of specialty malts, but if you take this sentiment to the extreme, you'd use no base malts and make a beer with nothing but crystal malts. Not that people don't do that, but it's an exception rather than the rule. Even your 4# is really "only" like 1/3 of your grain bill.

I'm squarely behind Yooper on this one. A great base malt starts a great beer. I look at specialty malts like spicing and seasoning food - different recipes/dishes use different amounts, but each thing that you add should add something to a dish that is discernable to some degree rather than completely dominating it. Too much of anything makes 'brown', IMO.

I've slowly moved into the less is more camp. I'm drinking a half pint of Deathbrewer's Vienna/NB SMaSH as I type. It's really simple and really tasty.

All of this being said, like jebsterr said, brew it how you like it.

Do no EVER use 4 lbs of peat malt in a beer. EVER.